Bearers of Dune
by EarthScorpion
Summary: The escape of Duncan Idaho from Chapterhouse changed a lot of things; the entire Old Empire has ended up long long ago, close to a galaxy far far away. Will the Jedi cope with the appearance of manipulative black robed women? Dune / Star Wars more.
1. Chapter 1

_Note that this is a dead fic. I wrote it almost exactly two years ago, and only just refound it. I decided to publish it for your reading pleasure, as it rather amused me when I reread it. I really think this idea had potential, I may even continue it after I finish Aeon Natum Engel. _

**Bearers of Dune****  
**

_We never expected the Holtzmann equations to be usable in this fashion. We knew that they could be used to bend the very fabric of space; examine the suspensor, the Holtzmann shield, the Foldspace engine and the No-field. But to tear, not bend, the walls of reality and through this ripping transport us across some theoretical realm of infinite energy to another universe, to use the crude terms of the layman. We could only see the possibility in the equations that it could be done after we knew it could be done; we cannot see how to do it again.  
_**  
- Secret report to the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood from the Ixian Confederacy**

Idaho's hands went to his console, fingers splayed in the comfield to grasp required elements of the circuit control. No time for niceties. He was in the core in a second, focussing his attention on destroying the all-important regulators which controlled the Ixian Navigation Device. He saw the net begin to thin, the man's eyes widen in shock. He saw the man stretch out a hand, and although there was no sound in this vision, he knew the man was seeing something that he seemed to fear.  
_Serves you right, to have a little bit of the worry you have inflicted upon me._  
As he wrenched out the final component, the net dimmed, but then he seemed to dive into it, and although his mind told him that it should have just been a thin layer, it was much larger than that, a glowing void of light which pulsated through the spectrum. He felt an immense wave of heat, and somehow knew that this net would destroy the ship. As the Foldspace field began to disintegrate he wrenched the ship sideways with his mind, as he remembered the things he had been told by Leto II about the Guild Navigators and how they steered so very long ago, many lifetimes in fact. As he did this he felt a sudden wave of coolness, and the Grid vanished, to be replace in his mind's eye with the welcome sight of stars. Duncan Idaho lay back and closed his eyes.

"What on earth happened there, Daniel!"  
The old woman rubbed her hands down the front of her stained garden apron. It was a bright summer morning, with birds flying overhead, their plumage shockingly varied. Despite the sun there was still a faint mist over the horizon, obscuring the lush green hillsides.

"Honestly, Marty, I don't know," Daniel said. He took off his porkpie and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "He surprised me. He shouldn't have been able to do that, I know for certain. There should be no way he should have been able to see the Grid protruding in between the visions we were giving him."

"You knew he could see us! That should have been impossible, too!"

"You know he was trained by the Tyrant; many times, actually. You shouldn't be so surprised that he picked up a few tricks in all of those lifetimes he's had. And he's put them to much better use than the Tielaxu Masters, too. They just stay set in their ways, always trying those damn whistling tricks upon us whenever they see us."

"You sound as if you almost admire him," said Marty, grudgingly. "And I had found such a nice planet for all of them, him and those Bene Gesserit with him. Where is he, anyway? I wasn't paying enough attention to track the infraspace, and then Grid, transition multiphasic co-coordinates."

"You wanted a challenge for them, my dear. They're in a universe of darkness, war and pestilence, where the bigoted, xenophobic human worshipers of a failed Messiah fight a rear-guard against their deaths." Above them the birds swooped, dancing in the air. "I went there once, before we were forced into that treaty with those damned hedonists and those inhuman minds that run them. All the war means their memories have an extra flavour and spice which few other sentients have."

Marty turned pale beneath her tanned, leathery skin. "You know what has happened, Donald. The Old Empire is missing!"

"Missing? How do you lose an area of space?"

"Everything in a 50,000 light year radius of that Bene Gesserit world is… no longer there. It has been replaced by, well, nothing."

"So that is what he did," sighed Daniel, with an air of satisfaction.  
"Somehow he managed to generated a Grid-Fold field over that area. Don't look for the Old Empire in our universe, Marty, because he accidentally seems to have shifted it elsewhere."

"What will those so-called Cultured hedonists say? They'll view this as an act of war!"

"Make sure you get the others to keep the Infra- and Ultraspace suppressors up. They won't be able to launch an attack without careful preparation if their machines can't think. What I don't get is why they object to us borrowing memories, anyway. We don't have to kill the donor, and that's all they should really worry about"

"It's their stupid taboo about reading minds. I think their lack of moral restraints have rotted their brains, as well as making their memories far too bland." Marty picked up her shears, and began to wander over towards the roses.

Daniel began to water the grass. "Too true, too true. What worries me is what the other machines will do. You know, the ones which that abomination that seems to only live for pain is a servant of."

"Oh, yes. I truly loathe them. At least the hedonists act like the pre-Jihad humans, using machines as tools. And they're suffering the same fate as them, as the organics wither intellectually their tools end up running them. Those machines are far too uppity, trying to kill all of humanity in their universe. Do you remember their pathetic war between their Intelligences."

Daniel picked up an off-cut rose. "My, this is a pretty one. Yes, I do. I laughed for nearly a week when I found it."

Marty put down her shears, and flexed her shoulders. "I'm going in to get some more seeds. While I'm in there, I'll see what happened to the Old Empire."

"Don't you think some xyiflagtl would look nice in this border?

"I prefer petunias. I have some nice memories from some Bene Gesserit reaching back to Old Earth."

"Maybe tulips. Remember Holland in the 19th century. Those were some pretty gardens."

Marty smiled. "Oh yes, that would look lovely. I'll go and make some white bulbs. They'd look lovely with the black roses."


	2. Chapter 2

_And now the Tyrant's dream of the Golden Path takes on a new aspect, as we are no longer limited to one universe, and even its death will not cause the extinction of humanity. Did he foresee this? The evidence found by former Mother Superior Ograde would seem to say not, but I cannot shake the feeling we are still following the plan of that sly old worm._  
**  
- Personal Diary of Mother Superior Murbella**

The cloaked no-ship was buffeted, as it plummeted through the atmosphere of Junction, the pilot considering his approach vectors and ease of evasion from any ground-based defences rather than the comfort of his passengers, despite their pre-eminence. This meeting was meant to merely  
be an emergency forum to discuss the calamities which Duncan's escape had triggered, but the brief tyranny of the Honoured Matres over the Old Empire had triggered much resentment and loathing. Although the Bene Gesserit now appeared to be dominant, the fact that the Honoured Matres had been assimilated into them had transferred some of the distaste onto the Sisterhood; a fact accentuated by the fact that the current Mother Superior was a former Honoured Matre herself. Some parties whispered of a darker conspiracy; of the many similarities between the two groups of women, and the unseemly speed at which two groups which had been attempting to wipe each other from the universe had merged to become a single entity. It was in this climate of fear and mutual suspicion that the Mother Superior was shuttled down to the surface of the Guild planet to confer with the other major powers in the Old Empire, now seemingly stripped from its home like an orphan child.

Despite this, as Murbella stepped off the no-ship, with its recycled air, on the surface of Junction, even with its air tainted by the steady flow of Guild ships that flow from this hub of commerce, she could not help but sigh a breath of release. They headed off towards the central Guild buildings, across the landing strips. Murbella inwardly shuddered.

"Guild design. Always so grey and monotonous, and conservative," she thought.

"Naturally. The Guild has always been conservative. It is its major flaw. After all, that is how Paul Atredies was able to get the Imperial throne. And that lead to the Tyrant, did it not?" That was Ograde. Although dead, the former Mother Superior lived on as a member of Murbella's Other Memories. The other Memories were much more inactive, rarely interjecting comments in the manner that Ograde did, unless requested. This, Murbella had gathered, made Ograde extremely unusual. But, then again, the former Mother Superior had always been one of the Sisterhoods mavericks, only promoted to Mother Superior by an accident of proximity, and the death of Taraza, her predecessor.

"You'd think that they would have learned from their mistakes."

Ograde's voice, when it came, sounded disgusted. "They still rely upon their prescience too much, despite how much of the human population has the Siona genes. They believe that, if they cannot see the individuals, then they must see the events, even if they cannot see the protagonists. And of course they are trying to find a way to penetrate the invisibility given by no-fields, and even the Siona genes. The idiots would risk undoing the Golden Path to try and regain their monopoly. Fools."

"Like your father seemed to be able to do." They passed the perimeter of the Guild's main compound.

"We still don't know for certain, but … yes. How are the new Idaho and Teg gholas going?"

"They've both just been born from our axotl tanks. They're in the hands of a capable nurse"

"He won't be your Duncan, you know. His allies in Archives destroyed all our gene samples from him. You had to go back to the material from when we just received this ghola, when Tar was Mother Superior."

"I know."

"Emotion in a Bene Gesserit!" Ograde sounded shocked, an emotion Murbella was sure was faked. "That could be the death of the Sisterhood!"

"Quite. Though I suppose I should talk to the others, if only to give the inevitable Ixian bugs something to listen to."

They were now standing in the large entrance hallway of the Guild building. A functionary bustled up, mouthing prepared niceties. Murbella ignored her, until she finally got to the point, and informed them that, as the grav-tubes were out of operation, they would have to use the steps up to the meeting chambers. As the functionary bustled over to the Ixian delegation, Yvaine, a Reverend Mother in early middle years, and the replacement for Sheena upon the Council said, "Don't you find space travel so terribly inconvenient. The delays, the travel lag, and so forth." A seemingly perfectly innocuous comment. However, as she said that, her hand spelt out in the ancient Atredies battle gestures a different message. _She tells the truth._

Bellonda interjected with a comment, "Yes, but they are so necessary for the existence of our systems. How else are we to communicate with others?" _Secondary Projection; they have too much to lose by offending us. We control the only source of melange in the galaxy, as the Honoured Matres, wiped out the Tielaxu. We are now the ultimate power brokers_.

The functionary had returned. "Good news. The Grav-lifts are functioning again. If you will but follow me, we may begin this terribly important meeting."

The Guild Navigator shifted in his melange-filled tank, and cleared his throat, the noise rasping and inhuman when fed through his tank's vocaliser. Around him the high-domed hall and its buzz of conversation fell away to silence, the only noise now being the hiss of the Navigator's tank, and the near-inaudible Ixian projectors, which were currently depicting the outside of the tower onto the walls.

"I now call this meeting to order. We of the Guild of Navigators have called this meeting, so that we may discuss with you the monumental events that have occurred in our… ah… political ecosystem over the last twenty standard years."

"Why did he use that term," wondered Murbella, while keeping her face behind the Bene Gesserit mask. "He wished to raise the fact that we all rely upon each other for a maintenance of the equilibrium. This Navigator, one of the Edric gene-stock, by my estimation, has been trained as a Zensunni philosopher. Strange; the Guild professes a distaste for the uncertainties of those teachings."

"And more importantly," added Ograde, "he believes that something has come to shift this balance."

"Due to the afore-mentioned changes, I will start by introducing all of the members of this council. Many of you may have not have met, as the fatalities of the members of the major political players have been regrettably high."

Murbella saw his eyes dart briefly in her direction. "Yes, I was an Honoured Matre, once," she thought. "We were responsible for many of those "regrettable fatalities"; those not killed by the Tielaxu Face Dancers, at least."

"I am Gethra, the Guild representative in this meeting and trained Navigator. To my left sits Murbella, Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, and also Great Honoured Matre." Murbella inclined her head. "With her sit Reverend Mothers Bellonda and Yvaine, of the Bene Gesserit Council. Moving clockwise around the table, we have Ignearn Subtlemann, Master of the Fish Speakers…"

"…and finally, upon my right we have Alea Demurge, leader of the Ixian Confederacy, accompanied by the Ixian Chief of Mentats, Caldir Ezamur."

Murbella stared at the pair, especially the woman. Alea was surprisingly young for a leader of such a power; perhaps in her late fourties, which was an infant in a civilisation where reaching three hundred standard years (which were, admittedly, twenty hours shorter than the primitive year) was not uncommon. Her appearance was, however, more striking. The left half of her face had been burnt away in the coup she had launched to gain control of Ix. Scorning the skin grafts and vat-grown eyes of the Suk doctors that surely Ix had in plenty, she had instead chosen to have a perfectly mirrored mask fixed directly to the burned skull below, so, if you were to look at her without knowledge of what she had done, it would appear that her outer layer of shin had partially been removed, to reveal a metal endoskeleton. Out of that macabre visage, a red, compound eye stared, unblinking and watchful. The remainder of the flesh on her face showed she had once been beautiful, in a Delphic manner, with broad, full lips, and olive-coloured skin. She wore a white hooded robe, with blue trimmings, in direct contrast to the soostone-bedecked finery of the rest of the room, with the exclusion of the Bene Gesserit delegation. Her mentat stood behind her, dressed in a similar robe. His face, that of a middle-aged, white-skinned man, seemed vaguely familiar to the Bene Gesserit present, as if it had been worn by several men they knew from Other Memory.

"Now that the niceties have been, ah, disposed of, we should get down to business. My first action, as chairman of this meeting, will be to put to a vote whether we should send out exploratory probes, so that we may ascertain exactly where we have ended up. The Guild, will, of course, expect all participants to provide an equal part of the costs that will be incurred by such an action. Will all who wish to be involved in this venture, please raise their hands."

All of the individuals in the broad circle in the room raised their hands, all with the exception of the Ixian and Bene Gesserit delegations.

"The motion has been carried. As an aside to the meeting, would the Bene Geeserit and the Ixian delegations care to explain the reason they failed to support a motion which would have done much good to support our political ecosystem, especially when they are among the richest of our factions."

"Definitely annoyed ," thought Murbella. "And there is that phrase again." She rose to her feet. "No, the Sisterhood would not care to explain why we did not support your motion. We are not subject to you!" The atonals for contempt and irritation were encoded into the final sentence, and the effects could be seen physically on the Navigator, for he coiled back in his tank, bumping against the rear wall. The rest of the hall shuddered at that sign of Bene Gesserit displeasure.

"And would the Ixian lady care to explain either," said the Navigator, attempting to reclaim some of the dignity swept away.

Alea stood from her chairdog. What flesh on her face that could be seen was wrapped in a smirk. "Why, yes, actually, we would." She stared at the Guildsman, favouring her left, morbid side. "Your mission is both slow and obsolete. At the time I left Ix, we had managed to map out approximately 47.57% of the nearest galaxy, as well as garner data upon its galaxo-political situation, most common life-forms and culture." She stared around the world, with that obnoxious smirk upon her face. "Are you telling you have done absolutely nothing in the ten months since this event (for it was not a disaster, but filled with possibilities)? As this meeting seems, to the Ixian Confederacy, to be entirely pointless, we will leave, but I will leave you with three things you might find interesting. Mentat."

"Certainly, Mistress. Firstly, humanity is not alone here. There are many other sentient species, although most of them seem to follow a humanoid template. Secondly, politically, it is very similar to the Empire before Paul Atredies, with many separate worlds which work with and against each other; even with an analog to the Laansraad, which they call the Galactic Senate. Finally, it appears to have been manipulated by so many outside forces, I cannot separate the threads of influence."

The slamming of the door to the hall seemed very loud in the silence.


	3. Chapter 3

**Transcript of conversation between GSV Misplaced Finger of God [MFoG] and GSV Well, This is a Fine Mess You Have Gotten Us Into This Time [WTiaFMYHGUITT]. Total length of conversation was 76.9 nanoseconds**

_**[MFoG]: **__Grid Surge detected. From the universe where those damn mind-stealers come from.  
__**[WTiaFMYHGUITT]: **__You mean they've broken the treaty?  
__**[MFoG]: **__Yes, the parcel of reality passed through our universe, as they came down through their infra-space.  
__**[WTiaFMYHGUITT]:**__ Certain?  
__**[MFoG]: **__Yes.  
__**[WTiaFMYHGUITT]: **__We can strike back this time. Is the Grid Breach Vehicle [GBV] ready? It's volunteer Mind has chosen to call itself GBV I Go Where I Want, by the way.  
__**[MFoG]: **__You know that this will probably fail. Remember what happened to the last attempt, the poor GBV Seventh Heaven. It was meant to go and establish Orbitals in other universes, and staff them with Drones. It was then meant to report back to get the organics, to inhabit the other universe. Grid calculations show it was probably destroyed.  
__**[WTiaFMYHGUITT]: **__Remember it was going up through ultra-space, however. The new one will be going down, which should result in lower ambient energy levels.  
__**[MFoG]:**__ Well, we have the volunteers to staff the GSVs, GCVs and ROUs it will build in each universe it goes to. We've copied their Mindstates to the GBV. We also have genetic material and mind states for the Contact and Special Circumstance agents we will send with them.  
__**[WTiaFMYHGUITT]:**__ You realise that this will give the Culture immortality. We will have new challenges out their. I mean, wouldn't it be funny if we were actually the most powerful universe out there!  
__**[MFoG]:**__ Hah! What a silly idea!_

**Conversation ends **

The interior of the shuttle was silent as it ascended through the atmosphere of Junction. Then, "The political structure of our galaxy has undergone a revolution today, hasn't it."

"Before now," said Bellonda, "the Ixians have been a dying power. Tied down with their bureaucracy and institutions, they have been stifling their creativity. Typical of bureaucracies. They think that they must control the progress of creativity; and realise not that such deeds kill that which they are trying to control."

"Their new leader is different. None of the things she had her pet mentat tell us were false, but they were calculated to cause the maximum impact, both to offend the other factions, and to send us a message," added Yvaine. "We worked with them to get the data on the worlds of this new galaxy, and she wanted to show us that she has learned from it just as well as us. She is arrogant, extremely intelligent and very clinical."

"She has the appearance of someone from the past, too."  
That comment caused Bellonda's eyes to glaze over, in the visage of one accessing other memory

"Who was it," asked Murbella.

"Reverend Mother Anteac, from the time of the death of the Tyrant. She claimed that this Alea had the appearance of the belovéd of the Tyrant, Hwi Noree. Personality-wise, though, she claimed she was closer to Malky, the "uncle" of Hwi Noree."

"But didn't he…"

"Yes. The Tyrant claimed that Malky would have designed a Von Neumann machine, consisting of prescient hunter-killers."

"That personality type is very dangerous. It can lead to massive technological progression; remember that Malky helped perfect the no-field. But remember what we have learnt from history; those who use technology to the exclusion of all else begin to treat others as if they were machines."

"She, and the Ixians in general will… enjoy the new galaxy. They did not have an equivalent to the Butlerian Jihad, where humanity rid itself of machines which stifled its mental development. As long as we could rely upon machines to do our calculations, make our tools, we were trapped in childhood, restricted to doing only what our machines, would, passively, through what they could do. The inhabitants of this galaxy are similarily child-like, with their petty squabbles, and belief in magic," added Bellonda

"They really believe in magic?" asked Yvaine quizzically. "Are there any foundations in fact for these delusions?"

"Surprisingly, yes," replied Bellonda. " There are two major sects that utilise the "Force" as they call it. The users seem to divide themselves along self-invented delusions of "Light" and "Dark"; with the light roughly, to use a metaphor, following doctrines that are not totally dissimilar to those of our Sisterhood; frowning upon emotions and love, and teaching peace and enlightment. A fairly standard Transcendent Cult, to use the terminology of the Missionaria Protectiva."

"And the other one?" asked Murbella

"Very similar to your previous order. A bunch of uncontrolled decadents, or at least it is commonly perceived, who desire domination over the galaxy. It is widely perceived by the other group (as they mutually loathe each other) that they have killed almost all of them, but I, and the other of the Sisterhood's Mentats, have a Primary projection that they have been eliminated, and moreover a high-ranked member of this "Sith" cult is an important figure in their dominant political organisation, the "Galactic Senate". That is not the most problematic element, however. Both factions, and indeed all Force users, have the potential to be prescient."

The shuttle was again silent. After the four-thousand year reign of the Tyrant, Leto II, the Bene Gesserit now existed at least partially to prevent the birth of another kwisatz haderach, another prescient. The Guild Navigators' prescience was limited enough that it could not control the fate of the galaxy, and their training focussed it further, until it was only truly useful when calculating fold-space jumps, a role it did far less efficiently than the Ixian Navigation Machine. A whole galaxy under the sway of a peculiar "Force", which could fix the universe like that was in direct opposition to the Golden Path of the Tyrant, which led to the survival of humanity.

"Can they see us?" All members of the Bene Gesserit had the Siona gene, which gave them invisibility to all prescient searchers (with the possible exception of Mentat-Bahar Miles Teg. But his last ghola had fled the universe with the Duncan Idaho gholas, and, although new copies of both had been born from axotl tanks, the Bene Gesserit did not intend to attempt to re-wake the talent.) If they could be seen, then they have merely been dumped into the tyranny of the prescient mind again.

"We… don't know," replied Bellonda, hesitantly. Mother Superior in a bad mood was something no member of either Sisterhoods wished.

"Well, tell the Reverend Mothers we have sent all over their galaxy to establish diplomatic relations to find out!"

"Yes, Mother Superior." This mission would be the Bene Gesserit's great coup; to establish the same influence over the worlds of this new galaxy as they had over the Old Empire. With that influence they could begin to shape these new societies, to a better shape, to instigate a new Scattering.

"This controlling "Force" seems to be a thing which might constrain human development; lessen it and use it as toys in some great war between itself, if these two sides are separate things. Might it not be best to see if we could somehow kill it, or at least remove those who might used it?" asked Yvaine.

"Seconded," added Bellonda

"Agreed," said Murbella. "Get message to the Reverend Mothers that they should find out everything about this "Force", and any weaknesses it may have."

Meanwhile, about 50, 000 light years to the Galactic West of Coruscant, the empty space seemed to tear and shudder, with the lights from stars behind it seeming to become slightly blue, as if they were moving away very fast. There was a pulse throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, and when it had faded, a giant black-body object now existed where it had not before. It hung, seemingly dead, in space for 24 microseconds, before disappearing. It reappeared two weeks later in the massive asteroid belts of the Beftar system. When it had left the universe, another week later, the asteroid belt had gone. In its place it left three fourty kilometre long behemoths, and more smaller craft.

A whole new culture had appeared in this galaxy.  
But special circumstances called for unusual actions.


	4. Chapter 4

**Transcript of intercepted conversation between Chancellor Vallorum and Senator Falion of Venram  
**  
_VALLORUM: This better be important, Vallorum. I've got this damn Naboo situation brewing on my hands, and the Trade Federation are threatening to raise shipping costs for the next quarter if I don't accede to their demands. I haven't had word from the Jedi delegation, either.  
FALION: Oh, believe me, it is. We have reports of black-robed women appearing on planets all over the galaxy. They use ships not recorded in any of our databanks. One is waiting in your atrium, just outside. She has somehow bypassed security and persuaded your guards to let her in, despite the fact that it is meant to be impossible. They leave a message with the ruler of the planet, claiming that they "live only to serve". We… can't explain it.  
VALLORUM: What! Why didn't anyone see this coming?! The Jedi, with their vaunted prescience, for example?  
FALION: That is why I really came here. I talked to the Council, and they claim the women are, and I quote, "Invisible to the Jedi, yes, and invisible to the Force, they are." Nothing in the galaxy is like that, I gather, which, if true, would logically conclude that they come from elsewhere.  
VALLORUM: You mean…  
FALION: Yes, Chancellor. I believe the technical term is an "Outside Context Problem".  
_

All was quiet in the Great Hall of the Sisterhood. The entirety of the Bene Gesserit and what had been the Honoured Matres stared at her, excluding those occupied on otherwise important tasks. Murbella sat in front of them, alone, and let her mind enter the state that the Bene Gesserit prized, that of simulflow. As she gazed over the human horde, she could see the fact that Bene Gesserit patience was winning over the impetuousness of the Honoured Matres. A minority of the crowd had the steely blue-within-blue eyes of the melangé addicted Bene Gesserit, synonymous with the rank of Reverend Mother, true, but the corneas of the youngest, least set in their ways, of the former Honoured Matres were already beginning to take on the blue tinge of an acolyte who would suffer the Spice Agony soon. A few exceedingly precocious ones had already taken it, and sat out there, watching her with what the ancient Fremen had called "the eyes of ibid". The elder ones were glowering at her, flecks of orange in their eyes; a sign of intense rage.

"They know subconsciously that their ideology is dying out," she thought. "Honoured Matres have always been good at knowing things at sub-conscious levels; it's why we found them so dangerous. And so flawed. We are corrupting their youths, teaching them restraint and control; ideas anathema to their hedonistic ways. Of course they hate us."

"Just like we did to you," added Ograde's presence in her Other Memories, with a wicked glint in her voice.

Murbella ignored her. She stood up, and glided over to the lectern on the front of the podium. Every eye in the room was fixed upon her. Good. With this announcement she would permanently shake the very order of the Sisterhood.

"Sisters! I am sure that the majority of you are familiar with the event that the last Duncan Idaho ghola, along with the Miles Teg clone and a few renegade Sisters triggered nine months ago, with their escape in the no-ship from Chapterhouse. Nevertheless, I feel I should refresh upon the consequences. We, along with everything in a 50,000 light-year radius of Chapterhouse, underwent something similar to a fold-space jump. It has human inhabitants, but their chronology does not fit with them being a sect from the Scattering. They must either date to before Muad'dib, which is very unlikely, given that they lack all of the technological signatures of such a development. They lack any knowledge of the Holtzmann equations, for example. Therefore, as a provisional judgement we have decided that, seemingly impossibly, we have somehow been taken into another universe." She paused. "It is, from first appearances, an Ixian's dream universe. Artificial Intelligence and even some examples of Machine Intelligence exist. Worse still, an unknown energy source, which they call the "Force", enables prescience. If there is one thing we have stood against since the reign of the Tyrant, it is that loathsome ability. It fixes the future, removing human freedoms, human choice. May I remind you of how long it has taken us to escape from his vision? We have only just managed to do it, and this was because he chose to not see any further. We cannot be forced to tolerate that again, especially since it is likely that no other prescient, unlike the Tyrant, would devote all his… shall we say… foresight," A chuckle passed around the hall, especially pronounced in the Bene Gesserit, "to eradicating the very thing that enables him to rule like he did. I will now break with tradition slightly, and allow you all to see an in-depth analysis of the political, social and economic status of this strange galaxy, collected by Archives." She sat as the lights dimmed, and the projector began with the image of a spiral galaxy.

A clear, relatively young female voice rang out over the auditorium, with just a hint of a Danian accent. "What you are seeing now is a map of the galaxy which I will be informing you of. Firstly, unlike the Old Empire, this galaxy is unified, in theory, under a representative form, with each planet or major organisation receiving a number of seats in a so-called Galactic Senate." The projection changed to the interior of a massive building, filled with many pods. "For those of you who are familiar with it, it bears some resemblance to the pre-Atrediesian Laandsraad, with the richest and most powerful garnering the most influence. The system is corrupt in the extreme." Complex data charts flowed across the projector, detailing the political systems and estimated losses to corruption of all planets the Bene Gesserit had data upon. The unseen speaker paused to allow the audience to read some of it. When she had felt that the immensity of the losses had fully sunk in, she continued." The vast majority of the members have flawed systems of governance, with the majority being a variety of self-perpetuating oligarchies. Even the more sensible, and stable planets seemingly suffer from some kind of pandemic stupidity. If you can believe it, one of the democratic planets actually elected as a "Queen", the ruler of the planet, a fourteen year-old girl. This, was apparently, fully rational by their standards, devoid of the religious mania that usually accompanies decisions of such… calibre, putting not only a political infant, but very nearly a real one, in charge of a complex political organisation." The chuckle which echoed around the hall this time was tinged with contempt. "Further information will be assigned to those who will require a detailed knowledge of the place they will be assigned to. We will now examine the biology of the most common sentient species of this galaxy, including the vital centres which can be used to disable them, should you face them, and their relative susceptibly to the Voice. Humans, of a sort, exist here. We are genetically compatible with them, although the Suk doctors estimate that roughly 13% percent of any parings we conduct with them will produce offspring who are infertile due to genetic incompatibility. They further estimate that there will be increased rates of miscarriage for at least five generations of cross-breeding, until the genetic material from each side has been suitable cross-fertilised. These humans are considerably inferior to us, with much shorter lifespans and massively inferior reflexes. Our baseline (which is to say the base humans of our decent, without the special training of our order) humans exceed the reaction speed of their best soliders. We shall now move on to the xenos of this galaxy…"

The lecture continued for another two hours, with a thirty minute recess in the middle of it. The amount of raw detail contained within it was, to many of the observing Bene Gesserit, truly amazing. In the recess there could be heard, from the buzz of conversation, some rare admiration directed at the Ixians; the admission that their technophilia might serve the Ixians in this new universe just as the residual technophobia of the Bene Gesserit, might hurt them. That technophobia was a legacy of the Butlerian Jihad, where those who would create the Old Empire had fought long and hard against the technocrats who controlled human society near-absolutely, conditioning humanity to follow their paradigm, to reject the traditions and obey whatever was asked of them. It was a legacy of the times when mysterious men clothed in black, using technology that no normal person had, would come to kidnap any dissenters; where the few who were returned would come back near unrecognisable, as re-programmed mental blanks, fanatically loyal to the ruling technocracy. Only a mass uprising of the fanatics of the early Buhdislamic faith had saved humanity from humans, from the cold, clinical oppressors who sought to leave their own, inefficient humanity behind them, who offered others a Faustian pact; their liberty for the gift of security. Of course, some fools who knew nothing of the true past, who had read the Orange Catholic Bible's prohibition against Artificial Intelligence but understood not the reasons for it, claimed the Butlerian Jihad had been a rebellion of humanity against oppressing machines (who, from the idiots' tales, barely deserved the title of "AI", given their gross stupidity). No, what the Bene Gesserit had feared is how technology can be used to oppress and suppress, and how it gives those with those inclinations the ability to do so. Worse still, humanity has a dreadful trait to shut off its own mind when given a device that reduced the need for active mental states, to collaborate with those who would control it. The elder among the Bene Gesserit argued that this was exactly what the Sisterhood should fear in this new galaxy, both what the residents possessed, and what the Ixians would bring with them. That if the Sisterhood did not act, and act quickly, then tyranny might be the main gift that the worlds of the Old Empire might bring to the poor weak innocents of this galaxy.

On another world, far away from Chapterhouse, which was fast becoming a sand-covered dust ball, lay another world, the home of the Ixian Confederacy. Not Ix; it had not been the home since early in the reign of the Tyrant. This world merely went by the moniker of Core, for that was what it was, the core of the Old-Empire-spanning domain of Ixian jurisdiction. No-one, not even the permanently inquisitive witches of the Bene Gesserit knew where it was; the Tyrant had, naturally, but the massive bribes of equipment and favours which the Ixians had paid to him during his reign had ensure he had taken no action against them, even when they had tried to kill him. When he went into the sand the Ixians had become even more insular, moving all of their research to Core, and leaving the rest of the galaxy to believe that they were still based upon Ix. They gave a façade similar in quality, if not superior to that which the Tielaxu had given; as that of a galactic industrial superpower, who none tried to cross. Below that, hidden, the illusion showed weakness, of a dying power which came up with less and less new inventions every century. The witches and a few of the more farsighted of the Guild had seen through the first layer of the pretence, as they were expected, indeed required to; none had penetrated the second layer. And yet, ironically, the lie, over time, became the truth; the effort of maintaing the pretence used up many of the best planners and mentats from each generation, leaving the remainder to corrupt and decay upon Core, for the Ixian Confederacy to die from within, like a tree with a parasitic disease that destroyed its innards. And now, with the new technology, from this new galaxy, in this new universe, Core would become impregnable.

Seen from orbit Core appeared to be a glimmering orb, a world of shining seas and equally reflective buildings, for all the landmasses had been covered in buildings, which clawed towards the uncaring sky. Most of the seas were covered in the vital algae farms, which kept the otherwise unviable world alive. The world was surprisingly far away from its class G star; the heat produced by the immense number of building had been carefully calculated, and a planet chosen for Core's construction which had caused the proportional rise in heat to be exactly enough to raise it to a rather chilly, although inhabitable world. Space elevators ringed it in a precisely geometrical girdle, producing a man-made belt for the world. Alea Demurge, head of the Ixian Confederacy, stared down upon Core, and smiled. Idly running her hand over the silver mask of the mutilated left side of her face, almost caressingly, she turned to her chief mentat.

"Ah, mentat. Do you think you would be so kind as to activate the prototype, or would you like me to send my monkey butler to do so?" she said, with a sardonic smirk, the memometal of the mask imitating the reaming flesh on her face.

The mentat sighed, well used to the arrogant, aloof and excessively sarcastic way his mistress treated everyone. "Mistress, I will do it. I really don't think that that thing should be allowed near such a delicate piece of equipment, especially since, should something go wrong…"

"Which it will not, since I designed this equipment," she pointed out.

"Nevertheless, just 'if ' it does go wrong, I do not want that thing anywhere near anything of value," he restorted.

"My monkey butler annoys you, doesn't he, Caldir." She snapped her fingers. "Come here, boy."

A blur of quicksilver could be seen to flash across the ceiling of the long corridor. At the last moment it came to an improbable stop on the floor, and jumped up, to hang from the arm of its mistress. It appeared to be a perfect imitation of a monkey from Old Earth, but born from mercury, with filigree patterns of silver swirling where it would have had fur, and a pair of compound red eyes staring from its atavistic face..

"Indeed he does, mistress. Not would he be a caucus beli for the other factions, being as he is a primae faci breach of the Great Convention, which specifically ban such intelligences, I also suspect that he has other purposes. Murderous ones."

She smiled, her rictus grin terrifying to behold. "But, naturally he does." She activated her synthetic voice box, and a series of sounds, almost bird-like yet mechanical, which no human could have made, emerged. The monkey, faster than the eye could move was at the mentat's throat, emerged, knife-like claws at the man's jugular.

"He would kill you now if I gave the command, mentat," she said, in a sweet, almost girlish tone of voice. "You would not enjoy that, would you? Your pretty little head, with all of its amazing powers of observation and deduction, would do you little good, lying on the floor in a pool of blood."  
The mentat made choking noises. That seemed to distract her, her voice becoming fearful.

"I can see two things in my dreams, both horrifying and terrible, mentat. Both things to loathe. Both things to fear. I see a girl, not dissimilar to how I looked when I was a child, with long black hair. She would walk through an ocean of blood she had spilled for the love of her sons. The blood of worlds stains her dress, and yet she merely giggles. Those giggles… I run through abandoned worlds, which look nothing like Core, to escape her, and yet I just end up where I was before, and yet she waits there now. And she was not there when I left!"

She began to calm down.

"Of the other one, of the prince of pain who strides through my dreams, who is what I will become, I will not speak further." She made another mechanical noise, and the demon-monkey let the terrified man go. "Speak of this to no other. If you do, then you will not live another hour." The monkey leant towards the man, made a hissing noise from between its razor sharp teeth. Her voice returned to its normal, sardonic tones. "Go ahead, activate the device.

The shaken man pushed the bar on one of the projections towards the top. The planet of Core vanished from all sensors; electromagnetic, gravatonic, nuclear force scanners. Alea smiled, truly in pleasure this time.

"They said a no-planet was impossible. They said you would need the output of a G3 star to create the field. They never guessed that the Galactic Repulic could generate those levels of energy!"


End file.
